robcat2075

Yes! That's clearer and more appealing.

Yes, there must be some monitor calibration issue going on. Nancy's version looks right here.

When I looked a those shots I had no idea there was hedge there until I saw Rodney mention it in the comments. I just saw that as a coloration of the ground plane. Here's a simplified example of the problem. In the top version the lines are ambiguous as to what contour the represent. They could all be lines on the ground plane or they could be representing edges of a vertical wall like in the middle or bottom view. The vanishing lines are the same in each one , but the contour lines running up and over the shape tell us exactly what the shape is. The hedge needs some very obvious detail to clarify it. Rodney's suggestion to break it into several bushes is a good one. Also... if you narrowed the shoulders on the female character, I think that would help a lot to make her more feminine. Make them narrower than the hips.

"Shadow" looks all black except for the eyes, is that correct?

that hedge needs some more vertical element to its appearance to clue us into the fact that it is there. One solution for the standing problem is that she doesn't have to turn a full 90° . She can swing her right leg slightly toward him and stand to that then drag the other leg over. She doesn't need to have here feet aimed directly at him.

Way better!

The non-multi-pass version of DOF is only a quick approximation and won't work great in all situations. In particular, it doesn't work against the plain camera background. If you need sky in the background, put a sky colored patch in back of everything.

If the OBJ is something you can share you ought put it in an AMReport and note that the importer works in v16 but not v17

In TWO we had a crowd character that would automatically alter itself. You could drop 30 in a chor and they would all be slightly different. But i see the value of making them look like sponsors. I fear this title won't quite resonate with me like "Stalled Trek" did. I've never seen "the Walking Dead" so i probably won't get the references.

If you want to use it for the snap to surface tool, have you tried importing it as a prop? Otherwise, for now... if it works in v16, import it there, save the MDL and reload that in v17

It is difficult to top one's self.

Good to see you didn't get washed away!

I believe that says "wherever", not "whoever"

For a tutorial, I'm looking for example images of the following. Images that in a one-second glance can demonstrate the idea... Motion Blur Depth of Field Shadows Ambiance Occlusion Reflections Particles and Hair Subsurface scattering Fog Toon Render Field Render Stereoscopic 3D Plugin-shaders I have candidates for some of these but perhaps you recall better ones. If you can think of a good image, post a link to it here. Thanks!

Another fine Spleensterpiece!

I don't know how hard that would be. IS there any other 3D program that can genuinely treat opposite sides of a single thickness surface differently?

That does fit better. that shadow on the ground is probably a bit too sharp. You might up the softness on it. And maybe using Ambient Occlusion on them might make them less severe in general.

Too many swinging camera moves. I would consider stabilizing that quite a bit more. At about 0:13... one problem is that the background has brighter and more saturated color than the foreground. In general, objects in the distance will appear more faded. Perhaps that is the backdrop problem you are referring to?

the big five-oh! Happy Birthday Matt!

If you can make the shadow bluer i think that would help the match. Looks nice!

Very cool, Mark! You need a 3D cake printer, or maybe you could put a cake into a computer controlled milling machine.

Yes. Understand that it's not an automatic process... you have to decide where to draw the splines. Since you won't need the actual poly mesh, you can import them as "Prop" which is quite fast for large models. I'm sure there must be an upper practical limit. Let us know when you find it! I don't use porcelain anymore. 5-pointers are best when they are fat and flat. Fairly regular side lengths and fairly little surface curvature There are usually several options for the exact placement of a 5-pointer in a mesh so you can avoid using them in problem areas and make 4-pointers do most of the work. There is a bit of strategery to it. Also, the flaws in 5-pointers typically aren't visible once a texture is on the model.

There are two perspective problems. -the sea doesn't extend to a real horizon line -the sky clouds look tilted into the sea Those are both hard to fix without having a very large sea plane and a very large sky disk. Absent those, regular camera fog could help obscure the detail that is making those problems too visible. Something like this:

Welcome back! Yes, A:M's Global Illumination will accept a High Dynamic Range image in several formats for lighting purposes. There is a thread by jason1025 somewhere around here where he goes thru a case on using it and I'm sure there are many other threads on it also.